


Once In A Blue Moon

by desourceful (responsiblelying)



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Aha, Gen, and then it's just like, basically a bojack horseman au, but it will probably derail into more mature topics later and i will update accordingly, okay so this is a fic where dewey goes to hollywood and gets famous, the beginning is completely sfw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25948879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/responsiblelying/pseuds/desourceful
Summary: Dewey gets the chance of a lifetime once a letter comes in the mail. All of his dreams of becoming a star are finally coming true! ...But will it be everything he thought it would be?
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	1. Prologue 1

**Author's Note:**

> At the moment I only have one other part written for this, so I don't know how long it'll be until I update this any further! Sorry!
> 
> (ps, thank you cab (huebot on tumblr) and meg (champopular on tumblr) for proof-reading this for me! <3)

Dewey’s chin rested on his hands, his arms propped up on the table. He blinked, attempting to soothe the burning sensation in his eyes. 

He had been waiting for forever, staring into the painfully bright light of Huey’s laptop; made even worse by the blindingly white website he was looking at.

His inbox was empty. Normally, it wasn’t, but he had gone back and deleted all of his old emails for the special occasion. He didn’t want this to be just another letter, piled onto his unchecked inbox filled with unopened verification emails, ‘free’ product offers, and the few, far between notifications of a new follower.

He moved one of his hands down and away from his face, tapping on the touchpad of the laptop impatiently. Conveniently centered on the refresh button of the page was the cursor, which hadn’t moved since Dewey placed it there previously.

Today was going to be the day. Not tomorrow, not next month, not any other day. But, today. He had a gut instinct. He just... knew.

He crossed his legs. He then pulled them up to his chest. He put one of them down. His body was screaming at him to get up, to move, to stand, to do something. Anything. But, he held himself together, settling to only bounce his leg against the chair, releasing the hours of pent up energy stored inside him.

Why was waiting for everything he’d ever dreamed of so boring?

“Dewey, you shouldn’t have your face that close to the screen. And you can’t hog my computer all day, other people might need to use it.” 

The duck in blue turned in his seat, facing the nagging voice. “I just need a few more minutes! Look, I know I’m going to get an email.”

Huey took a step forward, face creased. In one swift movement, he snatched the laptop off of the table, holding the device out of Dewey’s reach. 

“You’ve been waiting for two hours now. The probability of you getting the email you’ve been waiting for is very, very unlikely.”

Dewey frantically leapt out of his chair and lunged towards his brother; Huey tried to keep the laptop away from him, but all it took was a good grip to wrestle it away.

“Exactly! I could get a message at any moment! What if I take too long to respond? What if I took your advice, and ended up missing it? Then they’d choose the person whose brother actually cared about their dreams, and didn’t try to selfishly take away their laptop. So I miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime, and it’s all because of your smart rational advice,” he said, pausing for a moment, taken aback by his own words.

“You know all about worrying! Shouldn’t you understand what I’m going through?” Dewey continued, clutching the computer close to him, repeatedly refreshing the page he was on.

His eyes were peeled each time he clicked the cursor, but his hopes were crushed when his inbox finished loading. He wondered if the internet wasn’t connected, maybe, or if the router was broken. Maybe the websites servers were down, or the emails weren’t coming through. Maybe he had spelled his email wrong. Or maybe they had spelled his email wrong and had sent it to the wrong guy. No matter the reason, nothing was showing up!

Huey watched him for a while, before chiming in: “The definition of insanity,” it didn’t take a genius to know he was flipping through his trusty book, “is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results.” 

Dewey stopped to give him a dirty look.

Huey’s words had no effect on him. His patience was being tested, and his brother wasn’t helping his case. His tapping motions steadily increased in speed, stopping only when Huey carefully took the device from him and set it back on the table.

“You do know it updates automatically, right?” Huey asked, rhetorically.

“Of course I do! You do know that everyone else in the world isn’t stupid, right, Hubert?” Dewey mocked, moving away from the table, and his seat, to dejectedly sit on the bottom bunk of their beds. 

He didn’t have to look. He could feel his brother staring right through him. There was this itching urge to get a word in before his brother could, but Huey was quicker. 

“I didn’t mean it like that, Dewey. You know I don’t think you’re stupid.” His voice was softer now, more sympathetic, but did little to reassure him, and his hurt ego.

“Oh, I know that, huh? Well, I’m not sure that I do,” he spat back. Huey sure acted like he thought he was stupid.

He sighed, letting himself fall back onto the green sheets. He felt the feathers on top of his head graze against the wall, a glance of fear shooting through him as he had unknowingly almost hit his head. Yeesh.

Dewey didn’t hate his brothers. But, this was another moment where he wished he didn’t have them. Today wasn’t about Huey, and his smart mouthing. Today wasn’t about Louie, or his quips or his schemes. Today was supposed to be the best day of his life; today was supposed to be about him. But, other people wouldn’t stop butting in. He didn’t have his email yet. Not even a phone call. He couldn’t even sulk about it, because there was someone else there. Someone else stealing the attention away from him. Making it about anything else.

He tried to comfortably listen to his own thoughts, but there was an unnerving silence between him and his brother. How to fill the void? The quiet was only good when he was alone, but with someone else? It was unbearable. 

Ding!

He shot up as a noise came from the computer, scrambling to his feet as Huey investigated. His eyes were wide with anticipation, and then… dropped. Dewey’s hopes followed suit.

...No. Was it a rejection letter? Even worse, was this, all of this, a bad idea? Some childish dream to pursue? No - if he couldn't do something as simple as get accepted, he would never be recognized. He'd never stand out next to his brothers, who would surely grow up to be beloved, while he would continuously be addressed as the infamous - if he was lucky - "third one". No one would pay attention to him, no one would love him, his whole life would be wasted. His entire future depended on getting this email.

Huey’s voice was flat. “Um,” he began, but before he could crush Dewey’s dreams in one word, the laptop was once again taken from him. Dewey was determined to get the answer for himself. Not from his snobby-smart-stupid brother. Even if it hurt. 

‘70% OFF! Sale now! Come get…’

He opened his mouth, gawking at the screen, but he was unable to get a word out. He was seething. They said that they’d get back to him as soon as they could! 

“Spam? SERIOUSLY?” He used all of his fleeting self-control to keep himself from throwing the innocent laptop across the room. “This is NOT the time! I’m waiting for my dreams to come true! For my life's purpose to be fulfilled! And I’m getting spam emails right now?? This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me!”

He deleted the email, purely out of spite, leaving his inbox empty once more. There was nothing else for him to do; nothing he could do to hasten the arrival of something that might as well never come.

“Who are you waiting to get a message from?” Huey asked, reminding Dewey of his presence.

“I don’t know, someone, anyone? I applied to like, a bajillion places! I tried using Scrooge’s movie studio, but no one would publish anything I made. I don’t know what’s wrong with those people! Compared to the garbage on TV, mine was a work of art! If they had accepted me, they’d be swimming in more money than Scrooge right now. But, no - apparently, I’ll never get a chance to shine on the silver screen!” he complained, before returning back to his original point.

“They all said the same thing! They’d ‘get back to me at some point.’ But so far, I haven’t gotten anything. I feel like I might’ve inherited Uncle Donald’s bad lu-“ 

There was a well-timed crash outside of the mansion, soon followed by familiar, yet incoherent blubbering.

Dewey was jarringly pulled from his melodramatic monologue, and he shared a knowing look with his brother. They simultaneously made the decision to rush out of the room, Dewey slightly behind as he took a brief detour to set down the laptop.

They ran quickly down the mansion stairs, slamming open the front doors to reveal...

“And don’t you ever try something like that again!” shouted a furious mail woman, forcibly shutting the door of her vehicle before speeding off. Left on the ground was a dazed-looking duck.

“Donald? Are you alright?” asked Huey, cautiously approaching him. 

Dewey made a step to do the same, but then his attention was pulled in the opposite direction. The mail. Like a needle on a record, his heart came to a jittering stop. His vision narrowed in on the red handle/flag, which was poised upwards towards the clouds.

Wait, did that mean they had mail, or they didn’t, or that they were sending something… or…

But his confusion didn’t stop him, of course. He sprinted wildly towards the box, flinging open the lid to see a small bundle of letters tucked deep inside.

Dewey couldn’t contain himself. The vast well of feelings bubbling up inside of him made grabbing the letters difficult. Overflowing emotions threatened to spill out, but he swallowed his excitement, focusing instead on shuffling through the many envelopes.

“Scrooge, Scrooge, Scrooge... Donald… Newspaper...” he said each word carefully as he tossed the ‘junk’ letters to the ground. His hope began to sink, again - maybe this was a futile effort after all. Maybe he really was always destined to be a failure, cast behind his brother’s shadows. Until, finally he stumbled upon-

“Is Uncle Donald alright?”

The blue one glanced towards the front door. The voice had come from Louie, who now stood casually in the open doorway.

“Yeah, yeah, he’s fine. He probably got stung by a bee, or like.. hit by a bus, or something. I’m kind of busy here,” Dewey replied, waving Louie off. He had letters to get back to.

Louie seemed bored - as usual - and leaned back against the door frame, pulling his phone from his pocket. That response seemed satisfactory enough. Or, he just couldn’t care less.

“Well? What is it, Dewey?” A rather curious voice came now from Huey, who was busy supporting Donald.

Dewey’s head shot up once more, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. “I’d know if people stopped distracting me!” he complained, feeling the paper crumple slightly in his hands as his grip tightened.

Finally, he had this moment to himself. Huey stopped speaking. There were no other distractions. The other letters were now unceremoniously discarded to the ground, forgotten like dirt. What remained was one single letter, which he could see now was firmly held between his fingertips.

It had his name on it.


	2. Prologue 2

“I did it! They’ve accepted me! Everything I’ve ever wanted, ever, has come true!”

“...Dewey, you haven’t even opened the letter yet,” said the annoying skeptic, Huey, attempting to, unsuccessfully rain on his parade. 

“Do you think they’re going to make me the main star? Or, am I not famous enough for that yet? Maybe this is going to be my up and coming opportunity! Oh my god, my first job, and I’m already going to be known internationally? This is the best thing ever! Being a triplet is no longer my identity. It’ll just be the second to last fun-fact on a trivia page all about me, Dewey Duck, super totally famous actor!” the young duck gushed, stars in his eyes as he held tightly onto the unopened letter.

“Congrats. Make sure to visit us on holidays,” Louie said, not taking his eyes off of his phone.

Huey’s reaction was a lot more involved. He carefully let go of their uncle, making sure he was fine standing on his own first, before he stepped towards Dewey, snatching the letter out of his brother’s hand.

“Hey!!” Dewey exclaimed, reaching for the letter, but to no avail. This felt familiar.

There Huey went again, ruining his moment with his dumb stupid robot efficiency. He’s not even allowed to be dramatic, and have one single moment without-

His mental pouting was interrupted by the sound of paper tearing, and he stared blankly at his brother as Huey opened the letter.

“Dear Dewey Duck, you auditioned to play the lead role in our movie, and we’re sending you this letter to inform you that…” Huey read aloud, but stopped, pupils darting back and forth as he visibly took in the rest of the information on the paper.

After a suspenseful moment, he passed the letter back to Dewey, who took the envelope with shaking hands, allowing him to read the answer for himself. His eyes desperately scanned the page, stopping only when he reached the words he had been waiting for his entire life. 

“...that you have been accepted,” he finished, silence filling the air around them. Suddenly, a huge grin stretched across his features, accompanied by the prickle of tears in his eyes.

“Please come to our studio... at this date... in... our address...” He could barely finish reading the words on the page before his voice started to fail him.

Suddenly, Dewey's speech was interrupted by his own brimming tears. The brother he was so annoyed with before was now held in a death grip, caught in Dewey's little dream world: where he was a star, the sun, where all planets revolved, spun around him and only him, as if they were a crying crowd. Actually spinning. Huey was starting to get sick.

“Huey! Louie! Uncle Donald! Webby! Oh my gosh! Mom!!” Dewey shouted, letting go of Huey to take a step backwards as he stumbled and tried to regain his balance.

Dewey wiped at his face with his sleeve, before quickly running past Louie and straight into the mansion, ignoring the soft plead of his brother dropping his phone as he dashed by.

“Mom! Mom? Mom! I did it! I’m going to be famous! All of my dreams are coming true! I just have to go to Hollyw-“ His yelling was interrupted as he crashed into another body, getting knocked back and almost falling onto his bottom.

“Wait, what? What happened? Did you see one of those ads on TV? Oh honey, I know that they say-“ His moms voice rang out from above as he looked upwards, seeing her large eyes wide with concern.

She was silenced as he practically jumped into her arms, hugging her as tightly as he could.

“Oh my god, you’re not going to believe this!” he said, letting go of her, and she inhaled, finally able to breathe again. “So, I applied at a bunch of places so I could be an actor, and then I spent hours staring at the computer waiting for an email. But nothing came, but I never gave up hope or anything, and I definitely never thought that I wasn’t going to get a letter! Nope! I totally knew that I was awesome, and that I was going to succeed, and I never had any doubts about that ever. And I was totally right, and now I’m going to be the most well known person to ever exist!”

Dewey was panting, almost lightheaded from explaining that all in one breath.

“Oh! Well… I am… fully supportive of you, and I am so happy that you got everything that you wanted! Whatever that is?” Mom said sounding unsure, but enthusiastic as she leaned down to gently hug her son.

Dewey eagerly soaked up the small gesture of affection as fast as he could, gladly wrapping his arms around her shoulders to return the embrace. Dewey had conveniently forgotten that he hadn’t already explained to his mom everything that he’d been up to, and he felt a small wave of shame wash over him. 

She pulled away from him, and he spoke up. “I got the lead role in a real movie, mom.” His tone was more serious now, his words holding the weight of how much this all really meant.

But, her shock didn’t subside. If anything it grew, and a skeptical look started to creep its way into her face. “Oh! Have you.. acted before? Did they say what movie you were going to be in? Who you were going to be playing?” 

The questions made Dewey suspicious, and he stepped back. “Why? Are you doubting that it’s actually real? Are you trying to suggest that I might have gotten scammed, or that this is all much too good to be true!?”

His own insecurities came out through his words, even if he tried to bottle them down or mask them in overwhelming joy of the situation. He was so happy. But it was starting to make him sick. He felt like he could throw up, the roller coaster of emotions finally coming to be too much.

“No.”

That one word made his thoughts stop, and he looked back toward his mom again.

“Um… no?”

“No! Dewey, honey, you’re right. This is going to be the best thing that’s ever happened to you! What happened to your excitement? This is amazing!” She grinned, matching his previous excitement. It soothed the knots starting to form in his stomach.

“All of it’s real. It’s all going to be exactly- No, better then how you think it’s going to be. You’re going to be a movie star! Everyone’s going to know your name! The lights! The camera! The action! The eventual fall to obscurity!” She yelled, expressive, posing and moving to emphasize her words.

Dewey clung to her every word, but grimaced as she came to a finish.

“Um… maybe scratch that last one.”

He grinned, validated finally by someone who loved and cared about him. Unlike someone. (Huey.)

“You’re right, mom! No ones doubting me! You believe in me, and I can do anything! So let’s get in the Su- Cloudchaser and fly to Hollywood right now!” 

“To Hollywood?,” she was caught off guard by the sudden information, but quickly recovered, “To Hollywood!”

“Hollywood? Nobody’s going to Hollywood!” 

Neither Dewey or Della had noticed the incoming footsteps of the family members that had been left outside in a blur of excitement. But, there they were now, standing just a few paces away.

The voice had come from Donald, who had recovered in just enough time to ruin his fun. His arms were crossed, a body position that was matched by the triplet in red standing next to him. The sore thumb was Louie, who was content on his phone like he had been before he dropped it, a peaceful look on his face compared to the two other ducks he stood next to.

Dewey could hear his hopes shatter. Cracking and breaking like a cup that had been dropped onto the ground. Who dropped the cup? His Uncle Donald.

“Come on Uncle Donald! This is the chance of the lifetime! This is all I’ve ever dreamed of, ever!” He said desperately, the plea of a boy that was so close to getting everything he ever asked for.

“Wasn’t it just a few months ago you were begging me to let you adventure and run into danger with Uncle Scrooge? Where did acting come from? What happened to wanting to be an explorer?” It was hard to make out, but it was enough to make him feel guilty. 

Dewey knew all the possible dangers of this, mostly because his uncle always talked about how dangerous absolutely everything in the world was. Always. He was always talking about it.

“I mean… isn’t it safer for me to be in Hollywood, acting, rather then going off on crazy magical adventures that I could die on?” He attempted to convince his uncle, and before Donald could speak up again there was another voice behind him.

“Yeah! How many times have you almost died while we were out finding treasure with Scrooge? You should be supportive that your nephew wants to do something normal! Isn’t that what you’ve been teaching them all these years anyways? ‘Don’t do anything cool and fun, ever! Do your homework, stay out of trouble, and eat your vegetables!’” Della argued, and the support made Dewey feel warm. She was right! And she was on his side. He wasn’t alone.

Donald went from argumentative too… tired, quickly. It was clear that they were set on this, and that he wasn’t going to win. Even if he did, it wouldn’t stop them from sneaking off and doing it anyways. He knew that. Everyone knew that.

“Well, if you’re going to Hollywood, where are you going to stay?” His uncle quacked in a matter-of-fact tone. “I know Scrooge wouldn’t be keen on paying for a vacation for the whole family to go to the city out of the blue!”

That got both of them to shut up momentarily, and it brought to light something he hadn’t wanted to think about. His family. The idea of Louie, Huey, Webby, Donald, Scrooge, his mom, Launchpad, Beakley- All of them coming with, made his head spin. In his dream, he’d just imagined being alone, with no one else there, except maybe the occasional visit on holidays or a phone call.

“Well- Well, I mean, maybe not the whole family has to come.” He suggested softly, looking down and away from the other ducks in the room. Dewey didn’t want to see their faces when they responded. He didn’t want to know how betrayed they’d feel that he was willing to just leave without them for who knows how long to go do his own thing. 

“Wait, what?” 

The soft, comprehensible voice stung him as it came from the person that he least expected it to.

Louie.

Dewey couldn’t bring himself to look at his own brother.

“Maybe I could go on my own, or, just with one other person, and we wouldn’t all have to go together. Plus, it’d be better that way, anyways! Then you guys could stick together, keep adventuring, and I could follow my dreams. Without any of you.” He said, mumbling the last few words.

The silence that filled the room made everything worse. It made this all even harder. 

He couldn’t keep his mouth shut, the quiet ate and chipped at him until he didn’t have the willpower to wait anymore.

“Plus, then it’ll be cheaper! So cheap Scrooge won’t have to spend one extra penny on me. Yeeeah. Um.” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “And I can use all of my like, celebrity money to pay him back. Definitely. Totally.”

Donald sighed, his mouth opening to speak but he was suddenly cut off by the triplet in red. “We all want to be there to support you, Dewey. It’s fine if we don’t have to adventure for a few months, and I’m sure Scrooge would loosen up to let you do something like that! He loves going in trips, I’m sure we could find something to do there in the meanwhile anyways. It’s sounds like you’re trying to make any excuse so that we don’t-“

“Fine, you can go.”

Huey was interrupted by the older duck, and his head snapped towards his uncle in surprise.

“Wait, what?”

“Wait, really?” Asked an excited voice, Dewey’s awkward pout turning back into the grin that had been covering the entirety of his face earlier.

He looked up to his mom, who matched his energy almost exactly. But, before they could say anymore, Donald spoke up once more.

“But,” a condition, as was expected, “you can’t go alone. An adult has to take you, and stay with you. A responsible adult. Someone that will-“

“Me! Oh, oh, me! I’ll do it!” Della volunteered, raising her hand like you would if you were in school and wanted to get called on.

Her brother groaned, Dewey could imagine she probably wasn’t his first choice. Not that he understood that reasoning, though, considering she was his mom.

“Della. Fine, you can take Dewey to Hollywood. Just make s-“ 

“Woohoo!!”

They both shouted in sync, joy clear in both the child and mother duck's voice. Dewey couldn’t stay still anymore, dancing and singing out all of his feelings as it felt like the only way he could properly express them.

“We’re going to Hollywood, kid!”


End file.
